3 Tips for Helping Someone You Love Cope with Illness Anxiety

If you have a friend or loved one struggling with illness anxiety, there are various things you can do to help them. Our experts on anxiety therapy in Orlando offer the following things you can do to help them cope with their issues.

Encourage them to participate in treatment.

Illness anxiety is not a hoax. It is an authentic diagnosis. Formerly labeled hypochondria or hypochondriasis, this mental health issue can significantly impact a person's functioning, relationships, well-being, emotions, and quality of life. Unfortunately, when dealing with a person with illness anxiety, many people get frustrated and act invalidating or judgmental. It is far more helpful to acknowledge the suffering they are going through and encourage the anxious person lovingly to seek treatment for their problem.

It is essential for close friends and family members to cooperate in helping the sufferer to seek treatment for the disability. The first step towards treatment is visiting a primary doctor for a couple of reasons. First, a physician can evaluate whether the sufferer's illness anxiety is about a legitimate health concern. Remember that even when the sufferer has a legitimate health problem or concern, their anxiety is often still disproportionate to the situation. Second, a physician can evaluate whether the person's anxiety is exacerbated or caused by any biological issues. If neither of these problems can account for the reported anxiety level, then a diagnosis of illness anxiety may be in order. Some primary physicians may offer to help treat anxiety by using prescription medications.

Mental health professionals typically treat illness anxiety because it is a mental health condition. Therefore, psychiatrists can evaluate, diagnose, and prescribe medications to help manage the sufferer's stress. In addition, clinical social workers, psychologists, and mental health counselors can also diagnose and evaluate illness anxiety. They can provide talk therapy to help the sufferer cope and improve their quality of life. It may be beneficial to go with the sufferer to their treating clinician if you are close to them, so you can input the severity and nature of their illness anxiety and learn skills for helping them best.

Get educated about illness anxiety.

You need to understand the nature of an issue and know general recommendations for managing it to best help a person cope with a problem. Therefore, it would be beneficial to educate yourself about illness anxiety. You can do this by reading books, articles, or handouts about it or listening to audio-books, videos, or podcasts. In addition, a simple Google search for the following terms may be helpful:

• Somatic disorders

• Hypochondria or hypochondriasis

•  Illness anxiety disorder or illness anxiety

It is helpful to rely on reputable information sources like prominent medical institutes, including the Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic, and focus on reading from authors who have mental health degrees. One great strategy is to search for .org or .gov websites. Additionally, Psychology Today and other specialty magazines may also provide important information.

Encourage the sufferer to educate themselves about illness anxiety.

Encouraging the person you are attempting to help to educate themselves on illness anxiety can be helpful. But, ultimately, they are the ones who need to better understand their anxiety levels and how to cope with them. This information may be challenging because learning more about anxiety can often trigger worry in an anxious person. Therefore, they may need encouragement and support to continue seeking helpful tips and educating themselves. In many cases, it can be beneficial to get educated together. This way, you can discuss what you are learning together as you go and contrast and compare your understanding of the information you are learning.

Learning about illness anxiety can help a sufferer by aiding them in understanding that they are indeed not alone and there are coping skills they can use to feel better. In addition, it helps them understand the elements that contribute to their anxiety and where it comes from, expands their awareness of automatic impulses, emotions, and thoughts, and increases their understanding of exactly what is happening inside them. But, again, it is essential to remember that compulsive research can be an anxiety symptom, and you should talk to the anxious person if you feel like they are going overboard. They must take breaks from researching and go steadily not to spend too much time going through information, even information about coping with their anxiety. But if they are going to be involved with compulsive research, it is helpful to encourage them to research anxiety management instead of the health issues they are having anxiety about.

There is no known cure for illness anxiety. The anxiety intensity increases over time for many sufferers and can be extremely fierce when they're overwhelmed with other issues or stressed. This means that even if they learn to cope with it at one point in life, it may come back as a challenge again at another point in the future. Ideally, though, every time they are faced with this type of anxiety, and every time they practice and review coping strategies, they will learn more about how to cope with their illness in a better way. In many cases, sufferers can learn to keep their anxiety at bay more often than not.

Every person has some chronic challenges or issues. For your loved one, it just happens to be illness anxiety. You can make things easier for them when you educate yourself about illness anxiety and use informational approaches to helping them.